Starting to get discouraged - not selling much of anything

[mwc]

Hey guys, I know this is all too common, just looking to vent a little and maybe get some advice.

In the last week or so I've hit every smoke shop in my county, and sold less than $250 worth of prodo. One shop, the shop I sold my first pipes to a while back, bought just barely over $200 worth, which is the most I've gotten out of him by probably a hundred bucks. A guy at another shop bought 4 $6 steamrollers and that was it. This was probably my best week with glass, or close to it, and I feel I won't really be able to make the rounds to the shops for another month or so at least, so I'm around $300 or so a month including a few retail sales here and there.

The inconsistency is getting to be really discouraging. I no longer have another job, and have been hoping to make this my primary source of income but every day it feels less realistic.

I don't feel my pricing is bad, or that the work is sloppy, though I'm less than 2 years in and there are always improvements to be made. I try to keep the prodo clean, polished, and thick.

This is close to the stuff I've been bringing in, now there are less frit pipes and more ISO fumers.
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn42/mc8850/d7921090.jpg

I've been asking $10 or so on these frits
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn42/mc8850/03092e8d.jpg

And asking $13 on the ISOs
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn42/mc8850/f7c1c551.jpg
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn42/mc8850/dd004c47.jpg
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn42/mc8850/78d401b4.jpg

Feeling like a distributor is one thing that could definitely help, just not sure where to start with that. Google'd 'Glass pipe distributor' and found a bunch of India/China stuff that got even more discouraging.

Thanks for reading my nonsense :bangHead:

:twitch:

[dOprah Winfrey]

For what its worth, sales around my part have been spotty the last couple weeks. Many of the shops told me it was because they just had to pay their taxes. Perhaps thats whats going on around you part also?

[blackink]

Times are tough, keep your head up. One little CC for ya on the frit spoons: It looks like they are nice and thick all around but the stems are a little too constricted. I'm looking at the inner diameter of the tube and it looks maybe 5mm diameter at its narrowest point. If there's resistance when drawing on the piece clean, it'll get clogged fast. Looks good otherwise.

[Adapt]

it takes A LOT of footwork to get beyond the spotty sales. it's tough, but it's all part of getting established.

[frillcappa]

It doesn't help that your in California either, there are alot of glass blowers, and alot of prodo. not trying to be a dick, just for comparison tho... The pipes you get $10 for, I could sell 20-40 at a time at alteast $15, plus watever bubs and shit that i have aswell here in PA, just to one shop its just how the market is, people want local blown shit... there are others to go to aswell. Sounds like you need to find some new shops to sell at, or ask them what they will buy a bunch of, and start making whatever it is they want. GL man, i hope it picks up soon because your work isn't bad, just the market it seems like.

[B-Rye-oNeR]

I think the constriction/stretch on your spoons looks fine. They look better aesthetically and usually function better that way. And being in Cali may not help your price you are getting for your stuff but there are far more heads per capita out there, and what we do is much more widely accepted. Looks like you got the spoons down, my advice to you is to move on tho the next item whatever it may be onnies, sliders, two pcers, bubs, sherlocks, jars, head pc, slides, oil dome....whatever. Sometimes I go into a shop and the are stocked on spoons but they'll take all my onnies or bubs. and having nicer pieces that they cant refuse helps too. Maybe pull some stringers and cane, and get more into the ISO pcs. Or do some wrap & wrake spoons and bubs. Just try to have a wide variety, and when sales aren't happenin stock pile that shit. It all sells eventually...trust me. Keep on pushin.

[Tsnider]

im about the same amount of time in on glass, and i think your stuff looks pretty sweet.

what color orange is that frit piece?

i bet cali is hard man, i live im missouri where in my city of 150k im one of the like 4 artists lol. but its the bible belt too, and everyone wants to order from a fucking catalog!

my advice, is start making hummingbird feeders, wineglasses/goblets/ wine bottle stoppers, whatever you can to sell. good luck man, we all fell you

[HDGlassArt]

Cali is a great place just gotta venture farther from your shop. Try selling totally different looking spoons and as someone stated above, expand your veriety. Sales don't happen over night. Get your business suit on and look further. Your stuff looks great, and Cali may have a lot of artist but every artist is different.

[The Bigles]

how much inventory do you have when you go show your work? sales are often proportionate to the amount of work that you show.

[TheGlassTree]

Yup work looks good variety sucks and that's your killer. It does you no good to have 30 pipes if really you only have 2 pipes 15 of each all the same. Make other things as well as different styled spoons, ie: not just a different color frit in the same styled spoon. Use horns, dots, marbles, different color patterns such as wrap and rake or honeycombing. Make more complicated work.. Two piece items, like bubs or shirleys... Start vac stacking for custom color schemes. Push your self to be more creative...

[mwc]

Thanks a lot for the input, guys.

The Bigles, lately I've been bringing anywhere from 30-50 pieces at a time.

Silly that orange is NS Lava.

I agree that more variety would be good, it can just be hard for me to get that creative mode going and made every piece different; I've had very few first hand demos and 99% of my time on the torch has been alone, with more help from The Melting Pot than anywhere else. There are a few ISO and frit bats, and steamrollers that aren't pictured, and it seems they get more attention from the shop owners than the spoons do. Bigger multisectional pieces end up taking me quite a while a lot of the time, with a higher rate of failure and frustration. Once in a while when I do em, they are overlooked at the shops.

And I'm just broke, I don't have a ton of money to be throwing into tube pulls and stuff to hope that product will end up being big with the shops. I know I'll never know without trying, have just been working on doing consistent economical stuff before I try to sell any headyish stuff.

I have been doing quite a few pendants lately, hoping I can make alright money selling them at a few local flea markets, but I'm still working on getting a table and display and everything worked out.

Thanks again guys

[TheGlassTree]

Don't go heady.. Just a little different. A stem section for a bubbler should be a couple minutes faster than a spoon.. The can should take about the same time as a spoon... Make a spoon while kilning your two sections ... Do your weld... Make another spoon.. Clean bottom of can and flatten, kiln and make a bat, pop carb on bub, kiln make another bat, remove bub from blow pipe and clean mouth piece. Celebrate you just made a bub a couple of spoons and a couple o bats in a couple of hours

[mwc]

I'll definitely throw more multisectionals in the mix, but it's just selling those bats and spoons that's the hard pard at the moment, and giving each piece more individuality while still keeping it relatively quick prodo.

Gonna get my stuff together for setting up at the flea markets and at least give that a shot. No pipes allowed there though, unfortunately.

Thanks again

[KT-Old School Glass]

Don't go heady.. Just a little different. A stem section for a bubbler should be a couple minutes faster than a spoon.. The can should take about the same time as a spoon... Make a spoon while kilning your two sections ... Do your weld... Make another spoon.. Clean bottom of can and flatten, kiln and make a bat, pop carb on bub, kiln make another bat, remove bub from blow pipe and clean mouth piece. Celebrate you just made a bub a couple of spoons and a couple o bats in a couple of hours

EXCELLENT ADVICE!!!

Your work looks nice! Very clean.

Having a wide variety of styles will definitely help. Doesn't have to be much of a change, something as simple as adding a maria to the stem and charge a couple of extra bucks.

Another thing... I know you have ALOT of competition on the west coast but sometimes if you price you stuff too low it will sell slower. It's a psychological thing that if it is priced this low it could be an inferior product (not saying that yours is inferior at all). Move to selling out of your regular area and bump up your prices a little (you can always come back down if you need to).

[The Bigles]

50 pieces times $15 is only 750 dollars. I personally try to never show less than 2000. I usually show between 4000 and 6000. My shopmate usually shows between 7000 and 10,000 but sometimes as low as 2500.

those sales that you made are totally in line with a 750 dollar inventory.

if your cases are full buy more cases.

[myke]

Here in Colorado we have had a MASSIVE influx of out of state artists/newbies move in within the past year.This has been due to the booming medical marijuana industry here...We definitely have a ton of shops/dispensaries willing to take local glass,but the competition has gotten way more serious for sure.The suggestions everyone have put out have me re-thinking my game plan as well-Thanks guys

[berning]

there's some really good advice here. quantity, quality and variety.

i'm in a similar boat. live in ca. , haven't been at the torch all that long, spend most of my time workin alone, and i too struggle to find enough places to sell enough glass.

so here's what we did, and by we, i mean , mostly my wife.

we googled california head shop....or was it california smoke shop , can't remember , but a giant list came up, and we printed it . then i went through and circled all the shops i knew were good , and crossed off all the names that were obviously middle eastern tobacco marts, alot of those will be obvious. then i googled every shop left lookin good ones and markin down what part of the state it's in and how far it is.....................then we made a new list, of shops we wanted to contact.

then my wife put on her prettiest phone voice and started calling all these shops, askin for the person who does the glass purchases. she would line up several stores . and i get to road trippin.

good luck

if i can't get stores to buy more , i'll get more stores to buy.

we've also been keepin track of who buys what how often, and what they mention they like or would like to see. that way we know whne to call them again and what i should take

[davidwillisglass]

lots of good advice on this thread.

remember, you are a glassblower, but are also selling a product. one way to sell more is to have more products, different designs in production, as mentioned above.

one thing so far absent from this thread is originality and creativity.

i believe that if you can make something out of glass that is well designed and constructed, and different from the competition, there is room in the market for it.

so while you can definitely follow the pipe market and add horns and wig-wags etc. onto your current production, i would encourage you to (also) think about doing something other people don't do. this is not necessarily easy, but is part of being an artist.

[Greymatter Glass]

All good advice so far....

one thing I have noticed that's different from when I got started is the massive influx of imports. If you're in the "lower end' production world you're in direct competition with import pipes. Those pieces you're trying to get $10-13 for are in catalogs for $2-3 and sold by the thousands at a time.... it's a hard market to get a foot in.... and no doubt discouraging.

The good news is that there ARE shops that refuse to deal in imports, and they're getting to be more common as shipments from China get seized and the industry informs consumers of the situation. But you're gonna have to do the footwork to find them, and there's more than just California.

As for your work and prices, it looks good, especially for someone just 2 years into this, you're thinking about it as more than just "I wanna make sick headies" which is where so many of these dorks getting started now are trying to go. I would suggest hitting up shows like AGE the glass roots show. You'll find a lot of distributors there, and not so many just prodding around your town and posting here (you might find a couple here... but you know)

Anyways....

keep at it.

If you wanna give up tho, can I buy your stuff?

[TheGlassTree]

Listen to this dood he is a master.... ^^^^

[Destrukt]

Make em wait. This will give you time to put together inventory. If you sell to a shop too frequently they will start to buy only what they think they will sell before they see you next. If they think they will see you in two weeks, they won't be worried about missing an opportunity to stock up. Lots of good advice on here. Confidence in yourself and your products ability to sell goes a loooooong way.

[fUmEsNiFfEr]

Thanks for all the great advice!!

I agree that a larger inventory that is also balanced w/ a lot of variety will really turn heads.

I always have a few hundred screens bagged up too. They are no fun to make but they have saved my butt a few times :D

[mwc]

Thanks a lot for all the experienced input, I really appreciate it.

Gonna make more of different stuff for sure and start trying to get in touch with a lot more shops.

Thanks again :)

[rockstar glassworks]

So when I got into the game I worked for my friends industrial pressure washing company for the first 4 years. Slowly worked to get better. Then I got a distributor account (Franticus) who took only 2 lines of prodo from me, and went full time. Got an offer from High End Glass for 4 lines, left them a year later, and now only work for stores and do craft/art shows.

I went with the take orders and build to order model. This works great for me, I can tell people "start order x day, and it will ship x day". I also have clients who just want to see shit and play rifle cases game, and that's fine too.

I've made it work by seeing what the shops don't have. By seeing pieces I could make cheaper (no local undercutting, just far away distro stuff) and better. I now have roughly 28 different repeatable products that I can supply consistantly to clients.

It's not easy, it took 9 years to get even this far. I went for stability/business over fun/art so my heady skills are finally starting to come together after 9 years of glass. But, I do have a client base that I am tight with and who keep me afloat and busy almost everyday on the torch.

Add more product diversity.
Understand the term "loss leader".
Wear nice clothes on sales calls (I wear clean jeans, shoes, a tucked in button down, and a leather blazer until it gets stupid hot out).
Know how much you can make in one day and be able to say to the day when you can deliver. Do not flake, always make the uncomfortable "need 2 more days" phone call.
I am the only "corporate" glass blower my vendors know. They love my relialbility and wish that other blowers "wouldn't come down off the mountain only when they need moeny."

[KT-Old School Glass]

So when I got into the game I worked for my friends industrial pressure washing company for the first 4 years. Slowly worked to get better. Then I got a distributor account (Franticus) who took only 2 lines of prodo from me, and went full time. Got an offer from High End Glass for 4 lines, left them a year later, and now only work for stores and do craft/art shows.

I went with the take orders and build to order model. This works great for me, I can tell people "start order x day, and it will ship x day". I also have clients who just want to see shit and play rifle cases game, and that's fine too.

I've made it work by seeing what the shops don't have. By seeing pieces I could make cheaper (no local undercutting, just far away distro stuff) and better. I now have roughly 28 different repeatable products that I can supply consistantly to clients.

It's not easy, it took 9 years to get even this far. I went for stability/business over fun/art so my heady skills are finally starting to come together after 9 years of glass. But, I do have a client base that I am tight with and who keep me afloat and busy almost everyday on the torch.

Add more product diversity.
Understand the term "loss leader".
Wear nice clothes on sales calls (I wear clean jeans, shoes, a tucked in button down, and a leather blazer until it gets stupid hot out).
Know how much you can make in one day and be able to say to the day when you can deliver. Do not flake, always make the uncomfortable "need 2 more days" phone call.
I am the only "corporate" glass blower my vendors know. They love my relialbility and wish that other blowers "wouldn't come down off the mountain only when they need moeny."

EXCELLENT ADVICE AND STRUCTURE!!!

[spiralout]

come on over to the Glassroots Art Show and sell those fume spoons for 13-15 wholesale to shops all over the mid-west all day long and leave with more orders than you can fill.

[KT-Old School Glass]

come on over to the Glassroots Art Show and sell those fume spoons for 13-15 wholesale to shops all over the mid-west all day long and leave with more orders than you can fill.

I'm hoping I can make it out this year!!!

[Gold Fire Glass]

All good advice so far....

Anyways....

keep at it.

If you wanna give up tho, can I buy your stuff?


That's some funny shit right there !!!!!

All in all excellent advice and I'm going through a similar situation . I just try to keep in mind to " diversify " and dare to be different .

[spiralout]

We would love to have you out KT!!!